I guess it’s a sign of the times in which we live, but a couple of years ago I saw a billboard on I-85 in Charlotte that said, “Who’s the daddy?” There was a picture of a baby and an ad for a genetic testing lab beneath the picture. It’s sad that young folks are so promiscuous they have to have a lab figure out who is the daddy of the baby. It’s estimated that in some communities up to 70% of the children are illegitimate. Most are born into homes with single moms. Paternity, they wrongly believe, doesn’t matter.
As I look across the landscape of modern American Christianity, I think we have a similar problem, a problem of paternity. There are large numbers of folks, I fear, who name the name of Christ, but they are illegitimate. They are not truly children of God no matter how earnestly they may profess belief. You can’t tell by looking at their lives who their daddy really is. There’s no spiritual legitimacy.
We’ve devised all sorts of ways to figure it out. Go to the funeral of someone whose faith was questionable and you’ll see the spiritual lab coats come out. No matter how terrible a life the person lived, the pastoral researcher finds evidence that the recently deceased was saved. Typically we refer the audience to a one-time response at an altar call or a baptismal event. Sometimes they strain out a good deed or two as proof that the person was enjoying heavenly bliss. If we held out the Bible’s criteria the mourners would be crushed with despair. If their spiritual DNA could be tested it’d be clear that the heavenly Father was not their daddy.
This morning I want us to settle this issue once and for all. If you’ve wondered about those who call themselves Christians but live a sinful or what we Baptist call a backslidden life, then you might find this helpful. If you’ve ever wondered about yourself and whether or not you have genuine salvation this message may strengthen your confidence. This could also be a wake up call. When you see the marks of spiritual legitimacy, you may find that they’re missing in your life.
The Marks of Spiritual Legitimacy
We’re going to take the marks of spiritual legitimacy straight out of the Bible. As we return to the book of Ephesians we find Paul setting for unambiguous guidelines. The first mark that lends credibility to a godly paternity is that you …
1. Act on the desire to love like Jesus
Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Ephesians 5:1-2
The true child of God doesn’t merely believe in Jesus. They want to be like Him. He is the center of their world. They desire to imitate His astounding love as demonstrated in His sacrificial death. Jesus would be your hero and you’d desire with all your heart to be more and more like Him.
“Finally, David Witthoft shunned his Brett Favre jersey for the first time in 1,581 days. The Ridgefield, Conn. boy, 12, wore the No. 4 jersey every day since receiving it as a gift for Christmas in 2003. David’s father, Chuck Witthoft, said Monday that his son’s last day wearing the jersey was April 23—his 12th birthday. Witthoft conceded his son was starting to become more concerned about his appearance after the jersey barely came down to his belt line. Witthoft first gained national attention three years ago, and attended his first Packers game in December. He’s also planning to attend the Sept. 8 game when the Packers retire Favre’s No. 4. His mother, Carolyn, had washed the jersey every other day and mended it when needed.”
Contributed by Matt Neace at sermonnews.com
Are you as fanatical about Jesus Christ as David Witthoft is about Brett Favre? Paul says that as a deeply loved child wants to imitate their parent, we, after experiencing the love of God, will naturally desire to be just like the One who saved us.
Do you act on the desire to love like Jesus? Is conformity to His holy and righteous character your overriding goal? Is it even on the radar screen of your life’s focus? Are you willing to go anywhere and do anything for your love of God? Do you daily offer yourself to His service, withholding nothing that He may ask of you?
Stop measuring your spirituality by the number of services you attend and the amount of the Bible you know. Those are good things as long as you use them to get closer and conform to Jesus. The mark of spiritual legitimacy is that you are out of your mind, passionately devoted to the Lord who loved you first.
The second mark of spiritual legitimacy will get you labeled a goody-two-shoes or Puritan or legalist. If you’ve truly been born again and the heavenly Father is your Daddy you will make every effort to …
2. Stamp out of indecent indulgence
Listen how intolerant Paul was of certain types of lifestyle. He allows no wiggle room whatsoever for them:
But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Ephesians 5:3
The Greek word for “sexual immorality” is “porneia” from which we derive the word pornography. It covers all illicit sex including incest, premarital sex, and adultery. Paul links it with the word impurity, conveying the idea that people who engage in what God says is out of bounds are unholy, unfit to be in His presence. In other words, illicit sex makes a person filthy in God’s sight. As we’ll see in a moment this impurity excludes them from His company for all eternity if there’s no turning away from it in repentance.
Christian young people often ask, “How intimate can I get with another person before it’s a sin?” That question reveals a heart problem. If someone has a heart for God they will not dilly dally with sin. They will adopt the attitude of staying as far away from it as possible because their love of God is so strong. They want to be holy because God is holy and they understand that they are His representative on earth.
Interestingly, Paul includes greed side by side with sex sin. Both sins are epidemic in America.
“According to the Self Storage Association, a trade group charged with monitoring such things, the country now possesses about 1.9 billion square feet of personal storage space outside of the home. All this space is contained in nearly 40,000 facilities owned and operated by more than 2,000 entrepreneurs, including a handful of publicly traded giants like Public Storage, Storage USA, and Shurgard.
“According to a recent survey, the owners of 1 out of every 11 homes also own a self-storage space. This represents an increase of 75 percent since 1995. Most operators of self-storage facilities report 90 percent occupancy, with average stints among renters of 15 months. Last year alone saw a 24 percent spike in the number of self-storage units on the market.
“But, amazingly, as the amount of storage space required by homeowners has grown, so has the average size of the American house. In fact, the National Association of Homebuilders reports that the average American house grew from 1,660 square feet in 1973 to 2,400 square feet in 2004. So let’s get this straight—houses got bigger, average family sizes got smaller, and yet we still need to tack on almost two billion square feet of extra space to store our stuff?”
Brian Mavis at sermonnews.com
Greed is the desire for more and more stuff. It is not content with what it has. The greedy person does not have God at the center of their life, so they fill the emptiness by accumulating more and better material possessions. Frankly, our culture, media, and economy encourage it. Greed is viewed as good.
Just like sexual immorality, God says it makes a person unholy, spiritually filthy. The pursuit of more stuff renders one unfit for God’s presence.
Both sexual immorality and greed are indecent indulgence. The genuine child of God is scandalized by materialism and promiscuity. They don’t play around with either. They stamp it out. Why? Because God is holy. Wanting to be just like Jesus they stamp it out to be holy themselves.
Spiritually legitimate people will go a step further. Not only will they put off these sins they …
3. Close the gateway to temptation
Verse four seems oddly placed at first because Paul jumps from sex sin and greed to speech. What he says next is not random. It’s connected to his entire flow of thought.
Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. Ephesians 5:4
Obscenity is vulgar language. This includes profanity and conversations illicit sexual themes. Foolish talk is just what it sounds like, literally the words of fools. Biblically, a fool is one who says in his heart, “There is no God” (Psalm 14:1). Foolish talk is secular talk devoid of God. Just turn on most any morning radio talk show and you’ll see what I mean. Foolish talk is the type that doesn’t factor God in at all. Coarse joking was highly valued in Greek culture. It was the clever use of double entendre where you make a statement that seems innocent, but generally has sexual or profane meaning. Just pay attention Hardees commercials and you’ll see exactly what I mean.
So what’s the big deal with dirty talk? Quite simply, it’s a gateway to sin. If you have a conversation about sexual immorality or greed you are thinking about it. The more you think about it the closer you come to acting on it. The media has become quite adept at this. If they can get you to laugh at sin, you’ll take it less seriously than before. If you begin to take it less seriously you’re more likely to act on it. Speech is a gateway to temptation. Research bear this out:
“The Rand corporation has released a study based on interviews with 1,461 teens. Most participants were virgins when they were first questioned in 2001. Follow-up interviews were done in 2002 and 2004 to see if music choice had influenced sexual behavior. The results: Teens whose iPods are full of music with raunchy, sexual lyrics start having sex sooner than those who prefer other songs. Songs depicting men as ‘sex-driven studs,’ women as sex objects and with explicit references to sex acts are more likely to trigger early sexual behavior than those where sexual references are more veiled and relationships appear more committed. Teens who said they listened to lots of music with degrading sexual messages were almost twice as likely to start having intercourse or other sexual activities within the following two years as were teens who listened to little or no sexually degrading music. Among heavy listeners, 51 percent started having sex within two years, versus 29 percent of those who said they listened to little or no sexually degrading music.
“Boys learn they should be relentless in pursuit of women and girls learn to view themselves as sex objects, said Steven Rand, the lead author of the study.
Brian Mavis at sermonnews.com
This is why the character of our friends matters. Our conversations either lead us to God or into temptation. The conversations we have at home, at school, at work, at church are spiritual gateways for better or worse. The things we listen to and watch, the material we read and meditate on shapes us internally. Nothing is neutral. It’s a gateway to a destination.
Paul counsels us to close the gateway of filthy talk and open the door of thanksgiving. Paul knew that it’s impossible to empty yourself. Just eliminating corrupt speech is not enough. You have to replace it with thanksgiving. Thanksgiving intentionally focuses the mind on God. It is the gateway to holiness in love.
Let me encourage you to start making replacements. If you want to please God and be more like Jesus replace the indecency with thanksgiving. If the music you listen to is mind garbage, we live in an age when there is a Christian alternative to suite your personal taste. As much as possible, have conversations with godly, optimistic people. By the way, people who use profanity to pepper their language reveal anger and discontent within their hearts. You can’t avoid them, but you can reduce their influence. TV, movies, videos? There are alternatives to the trash. You just have to look for it. It doesn’t have to be a Christian movie to be good. If you can’t find anything entertaining that’s positive and pure, consider just turning the junk off. I promise you there are a zillion better things you can do with your time.
If you’re a true child of the heavenly Father it won’t be that difficult of a choice to make. Remember, closing the gateway to temptation is one of the marks of spiritual legitimacy. The final mark …
4. Dethrone the ego
Paul provides a chilling spiritual summary. Notice the return to family language in verses 5:
For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Ephesians 5:5-6
Let’s be clear. Those who pursue a life of unrepentant sexual immorality will not be saved because they are not saved. Those who pursue a life of unrepentant greed will not be saved because they are not saved. Paul uses the same Greek words as in verse 3. The materialist and the person engaging in sex outside of marriage between a man and a woman will not have an inheritance in the kingdom of God. Why? Because the heavenly Father is not their daddy. God is not at the center of their lives. Jesus is not on the throne of their heart. Who is? Their ego. Self is at the center.
Pursuing lustful pleasure in flagrant disregard of God sexual boundaries is idolatry. Selfish pleasure is god. Who’s your spiritual daddy? You are … and you cannot save yourself. Replacing the eternal Lord with temporary possessions is idolatry. Acquiring more, buying bigger and better is your god. Who’s your spiritual daddy? Stuff. Why? More stuff inflates the ego.
The mark of a true child of God is a progressive dethronement of the ego. The self increasingly is put in its place and that is a distant second to God. Don’t be misled by the empty words of our society. It’s not all about you. Don’t copy the lifestyle of your pagan neighbors. The one who dies with the most toys does not win. He goes to hell.
The Lord’s Supper is a great reminder of the caliber of life the child of God will lead. In it we remember Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for our sins. As we celebrate we remember God’s great love for us and we commit ourselves to live it out. As you take the bread and cup, I want you to ask the heavenly Father to make you broken bread and poured our wine – just like Jesus.
